On 3 December, 2023, 34-year-old composer and manufacturer Kabeer Kathpalia fulfilled a dream he had since faculty of acting on the NH7 Weekender song competition in Pune. Accompanied via his pal and longtime collaborator Savera Mehta and different artists on degree, Kabeer, who is going via the moniker ‘OAFF’, had his “complete circle second”.
“The NH7 Weekender revel in used to be insane. Going to university in Pune, I attended one of the earliest Weekender fairs as a fan. Again then, I take into account telling my pals that someday, I might play on this sort of a degree. For some time, it didn’t occur and I began doing different issues together with generating song. In 2022, Savera and I began acting are living, after which, previous this 12 months, the Weekender organisers invited us to play,” says Kabeer, chatting with The Higher India.
Whilst on degree, Savera and OAFF carried out their newest liberate ‘Hone Do Jo Hota Hai’ from the approaching Netflix movie ‘Kho Gaye Hum Kahan’ with fellow composer Ankur Tewari and actors Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Pandey and Adarsh Gaurav who function in it.
“It used to be a complete birthday party on degree! And, the entirety had come complete circle,” he remembers.
Kabeer went from composing advert jingles for a couple of years to freeing his debut unmarried in 2018 with Savera. In the end, OAFF and Savera made a step forward in 2022 via composing the background ranking and soundtrack for the movie ‘Gehraiyaan’ (starring Deepika Padukone).
Sooner than delving additional into Kabeer’s existence and song, then again, we requested him why he is going via the moniker ‘OAFF’. “The English phrase ‘oaff’ manner a silly, awkward and foolish particular person. And after I began placing out song, I didn’t need to do it beneath my actual identify; I sought after a creative identify. Bobbing up with OAFF, then again, used to be extra of an inside of funny story between my pals and me. And I simply associated with that more or less an individual, stored that as my degree identify and it more or less caught,” he says.
‘Tune so that you can categorical issues I will’t say with phrases’
Born and raised in Ahmedabad in a half-Punjabi and half-Gujarati circle of relatives, Kabeer recalls rising up in a family stuffed with avid song listeners.
“My grandfather used to be a large song buff on the subject of paying attention to Indian and Western classical song. In the meantime, my father listened to a large number of Red Floyd and The Beatles,” he remembers.
Kabeer remembers his folks placing him into other experimental colleges. In reality, for 2 years (in Categories 6 and seven), he attended one such boarding faculty in Andhra Pradesh. Right here, he remembers one in every of his core recollections of having into song.
“Certainly one of my core recollections of having into song got here throughout my transient stint at this boarding faculty. Within the evenings, I remember the fact that whilst everybody used to be out enjoying other sports activities, I used to be indoors paying attention to the Pulse album via Red Floyd and studying books. That’s such an abiding reminiscence as a result of someplace down the road I began realising that song used to be some way for me to specific issues that I couldn’t say with phrases,” he remembers.
Following his two-year stint there, he went again to Ahmedabad and enrolled in a global faculty the place he met Savera for the primary time. Even supposing he didn’t are aware of it then, this come upon and their next friendship would exchange Kabeer’s existence maximum remarkably.
“In school, Savera had an electrical guitar, and someday, he allowed me to take it house and take a look at my hand at it. We quickly shaped a punk rock band in highschool enjoying duvet songs. When I began enjoying, I slowly began to immerse myself in learning song principle and looking to know how issues paintings,” he says.
Transferring between science and song
Following highschool, Kabeer attended FLAME College, a personal varsity in Pune, the place he used to be learning arithmetic and physics.
“First of all, I sought after to turn out to be a theoretical physicist. My years in faculty had been most commonly about science, in particular physics and arithmetic. But even so those interests, the one thing more that in point of fact me in faculty used to be enjoying the guitar. Thankfully, I additionally met a host of pals in faculty who had been in point of fact experimenting with song,” he says.
Alternatively, there used to be one pal particularly from Nagaland, who in point of fact helped Kabeer immerse himself additional in song and experiment with other sounds.
“Kuzo (his pal) and I might jam and get a hold of all forms of loopy concepts about song principle. However even at that time, song used to be one thing I did for amusing. When I were given carried out with faculty, I advised my folks that I sought after to take a 12 months off to make my very own song. Fortunately, they had been cool with this determination. Kuzo and I quickly began making song at a studio we had arrange in Ahmedabad and began placing out our paintings on Fb, SoundCloud, and many others,” he says.
A turning level got here when someday a logo approached Kabeer and his pal to make song for them for which they’d obtain remuneration.
“In the end, this resulted in extra such initiatives. Then I made up our minds to make the transfer to Mumbai and notice what the scene is like there. So, I made my technique to Mumbai someday round 2014–15. Even at this level, I didn’t bring to mind myself as a musician or a composer. I used to be simply satisfied that I used to be getting paid to make song. It used to be best a few years later down the road that I started to simply accept the truth that I’m a song composer and that that is what I do,” he notes.
In Mumbai, Kabeer as soon as once more discovered Savera, and so they started via making advert jingles for manufacturers.
“Truthfully, I didn’t understand how folks made cash via song however quickly came upon that folks pay composers just right cash for advert jingles. As soon as a director gave me an advert to paintings on, and issues simply picked up. Sooner than we knew it, Savera and I had composed loads of jingles,” he says.
In spite of common jam classes and composing songs of their loose time, it used to be best in 2018 when Kabeer (beneath the OAFF moniker) and Savera launched their first unbiased track ‘For A Whilst’.
What took him goodbye to place out his first track on-line?
“As maximum musicians who put out their song for the primary time, you by no means really feel it’s totally in a position. There may be at all times that feeling that you’ll do extra. I have been eager about placing out song for such a lot of years and someday made up our minds to not overthink it. So, I simply dropped ‘For A Whilst’ on-line and left it by myself,” remembers Kabeer.
After freeing it, he forgot in regards to the track. A few weeks later, a chum of his advised him that the track had blown up on Spotify producing a just right selection of streams. Suffice to mention, he used to be sceptical in regards to the claims his pal had made. “When I went on Spotify and checked the streaming numbers, it gave me better self assurance to place out extra song,” he provides.
‘Gehraiyaan’
A few years previous, Kabeer remembers having watched director Shakun Batra’s movie Kapoor & Sons on the theatre and coming clear of it pondering that someday he would like to compose song for his movies.
“I got here out of the theatre pondering he has such just right style [in music]. Rapid ahead to 2020 and I had launched ‘Perpetuate’, an instrumental observe. A 12 months later, I were given this direct message (DM) from Shakun Batra on Instagram asking me if I might meet him for this new challenge (Gehraiyaan) he used to be operating on. I jumped on the likelihood to fulfill him,” he remembers.
“Shakun sought after Savera and me to do the background ranking for the movie as a result of he noticed that the instrumental observe [I had put out] fitted neatly into the sonic and emotional palette of song he used to be taking a look to probe for this movie. After all, he requested us for demos and did his due diligence on us to peer whether or not lets maintain a challenge of this magnitude,” he provides.
They were given the background ranking gig, which used to be huge for them. However as Savera and Kabeer had been doing the background ranking, they started questioning who used to be composing the songs.
“We requested him how Savera and I may compose songs for the movie. He advised us that composing songs used to be just a little other proposition as it calls for approval from the manufacturer and that there have been large composers pitching songs for the movie too. However Shakun advised us that if Savera and I may ship songs whilst having the time and bandwidth to the ranking paintings as neatly, we must opt for it. Savera and I made up our minds that we must ship him a track no less than,” he says.
After bobbing up with a host of concepts, they despatched a coarse demo for what ultimately changed into ‘Doobey’ — the standout observe from the Gehraiyaan album — and it were given licensed. Shakun had additionally heard a track of Kabeer’s referred to as ‘Frontline’, which afterward changed into the identify observe ‘Gehraiyaan’.
“After sending in two songs, we requested if lets ship in any other one. Shakun answered via announcing that we must do the entire album,” he provides.
Procedure of creating song
“Necessarily, we commence off with a vibe we’re looking to discover. We’ll fiddle with our tools and succeed in some degree the place we really feel that this is a fascinating vibe to discover. After which we’ll put down the melody, which might most often be in English,” he explains.
“First of all, we’ll type of write an English pop track as a result of that’s the type of song we grew up paying attention to and it’s more straightforward for us to word it in that [language]. Now we have this manufacturing with an English melody after which we provide it to the director/manufacturer. As soon as it will get licensed, the lyricist is available in after which begins writing Hindi lyrics to the similar English melody. This can be a procedure in itself as a result of each language has its personal nuances,” he provides.
For a film like Gehraiyaan, Kabeer explains that the background ranking and songs basically serve the tale and the characters. Given the truth that the film does no longer have a traditional song-and-dance regimen with actors dancing or lip-syncing to songs, the target of creating song right here is ready taking the tale forward. Because the background ranking has no lyrics, it’s about developing the strain a scene calls for. A track, in the meantime, supplies a special contact.
Two years since Gehraiyaan, then again, their procedure of creating song has modified just a little bit.
“The best way wherein now we have fairly altered our option to making song is that now now we have more or less understood the construction of [song] writing just a little higher. We also are actively making an attempt to be informed Hindi just a little higher in order that we don’t have to do that English-to-Hindi factor each time. The opposite large distinction is that Savera and I aren’t in the similar town anymore. That strategy of sitting at the similar pc and doing issues in combination doesn’t occur at all times,” he says.
Atmospheric Pop
Like maximum artists, Kabeer doesn’t just like the perception that his song may also be pigeonholed into a definite style. But when we had been to explain his song sensibility, he prefers the time period ‘atmospheric pop’.
“At the one hand, I concentrate to a large number of instrumental song whether or not it’s simply guitars or digital song. I like that more or less song as a result of the introspective feeling it offers me. Alternatively, I additionally love pop song, figuring out its dynamics, learn how to write a just right hook and stay the target market engaged, and many others. First of all, the objective used to be to mix each those components into my song. Tracks like Gehraiyaan, Doobey and Bahaane have this electronica song sensibility within the manufacturing but it surely’s were given pop song-writing as neatly. For the Netflix movie ‘Kho Gaye Hum Kahan’ slated for liberate on 26 December, we’ve long past for a extra indie rock vibe,” he explains.
“That’s no longer purely electronica song anymore, it’s one thing else now. It’s a part of our evolution as artists. The speculation is to do one thing new which hasn’t been explored sonically in Bollywood. We need to paintings with sounds that aren’t most often explored in Bollywood,” he provides.
In the meantime, Kabeer’s contemporary luck has given him the risk to collaborate with other artists together with the likes of Arijit Singh and Javed Akhtar.
“The paintings I’ve carried out thus far has now given me get right of entry to to extra folks I need to collaborate with. However the holy grail is AR Rahman. Disregard participating, I simply need to meet him, see him paintings, and be told from him. I would like to grasp his procedure of creating song,” he says.
(Edited via Pranita Bhat; Photographs courtesy Instagram/oaffmusic)